From: "Moody, Tim/NTSEUG" Date: Tue, 27 Aug 96 15:19:00 PDT Subject: FJM and What harp?
Harpers,
Just a quick comment. I have always took a MAJOR dislike to anyone telling me what harp to use. A good bandleader will handle it much differently. When hosting a jam and an unknown harp player sits in, I'll ask them "which" harps they have. I they say something like "all of them" I say nothing else. If they say something like, "C, D and A", then I'll tell them the scoop for each song and ask if they are comfortable with that.( In other words, "This is a medium shuffle in G, are you comfortable with that?") If they blow crap(play in the wrong key, noodling against the progression, etc.) or blow all over everyone else, they get thanked politely for coming up after the first song. If I go to a jam and get invited up and the band leader tells me which harp to play, I thank them the first time and tell them it's not needed. If they tell me which harp to use again, I get a little smartass. Usually I'll wait until it's my turn to play a song and then tell that same person(usually a guitarist), "This is a meduim shuffle in E. That's the big fat string on top!" They usually get the idea. One time a vocalist kept telling me which harp to use and I was getting pissed. After using all of my diplomacy I had to tell him to f__k off. Sometimes it's needed.
